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User blog:Mlp Soarin/Some Thoughts On Pony Burnout
I'm reposting this from the Zetaboards forum, since the Wiki seems to get more activity. I originally posted this back in February, but I've noticed a lot of my friends in the RP showing telltale signs of burnout, and I figured it was a good time to bring it up again. So we've all gone through it. You find out about this crazy #twitterponies thing. You watch it a while. You get all excited and make yourself a pony. Or two. Or twelve. You post like crazy! You get involved with other ponies. You have some great scenes, you have some others that fall flat. Some big drama erupts and you get all caught up in it. You stay up waaaay too late and the ponies get in your head. And then... you get tired. You feel unmotivated. You wonder what's wrong. You just feel... meh. You start to wonder if maybe this thing isn't for you. Pony burnout. We all get it. Let's face it, we pour a lot of ourselves into these silly ponies. When there's a good scene going, we get a lot back out! But in between those magical highs, there's a lot of false starts or long awkward pauses. Real life interferes. Too many late nights take their toll. Emotions get all weird. What to do about? That's the question. Well, start out with the realization that you're not alone. Most if not all of us have gone through it. Some of us go through it on an almost regular, predictable cycle. (Guilty.) Roleplaying in a never-ending stream on Twitter is completely different from any other RP experience. We're "on duty" 24/7, and even though you can come and go at will, the world doesn't "pause" when you're away. That's both a curse and a blessing. The curse is that there's always a nagging feeling that you're missing "the good bits" when you're away, which might cause you to watch the feed obsessively like the kid who doesn't want to go to bed because the grownups will be having fun without him. The blessing is that there's always more! You don't HAVE to see everything or be there for everything! Miss the cool scene tonight? There'll be a cool scene tomorrow that you can totally jump into. Next, well, get some rest! With the realization that you don't have to actually be there all the time, you can step away from the feed and do something ELSE when you get tired. Sleep is always a good choice. Doing your job if you're employed is another one. (Guilty.) Get offline entirely and get some exercise, ya lazy bum! (Yes, guilty again.) Make sure you aren't trying to follow too much. If there are posters who just bring you down whenever you see something from them, unfollow 'em. Don't make a drama out of it, don't tell them you're doing it, just quietly click the "unfollow" button and be done. It's big, BIG RP... there's nothing wrong with picking a small subsection and being happy with it. When I first found the #twitterponies I only followed Princess Celestia for a long time. If that doesn't help (or even if it does), watch some My Little Pony. Remind yourself of what it was that made you want to be involved in the first place. Finally, sometimes you just need to take a break. That's perfectly fine. My favorite method is to come up with an in-character reason why your character won't be around for a few days. Vacation, visiting a sick friend, going off in search of some fabled treasure, whatever! A few poses setting it up, followed up by "(( afk until ____, see you soon ponies! ))" is all you really need. When you're on your break, actually -take- a break. You don't have to abandon us entirely but you should definitely make a point of closing your Twitter app of choice and walking away. Check once or twice a day if you're missing it, but remember that the point is to not be there. Or as they say in bumper stickers, "How can we miss you if you won't go away?" Of course, there is always the possibility that you may discover after being away that you really just aren't interested in continuing. It happens. It's not the end of the world. #twitterponies is supposed to be fun, and if you aren't having fun, there's no point in playing. If you're playing an OC, it's easy... you just stop posting. If you're playing a show character, I would request that make arrangements with one of us to free up your character for some other player. We always have new folks coming in who'd love to have their chance. But hopefully, if you've gotten the hang of pacing yourself and stepping out to breathe periodically, it won't come to that. Anyhow, that's how I cope with my occasional bouts of pony burnout. What about you guys? Category:Blog posts